Fitz's marathon debut in Maine: Cold, hills, 2:55:09

Congratulations to Marist Running Alum Ryan Fitzsimons for his debut 26.2-miler up in his home state of Maine. Fitz is now living and working in NYC. He chose a doozy of a debut marathon. His description of the course made it sound like it was hills, hills and more hills. Here is more of what he wrote in his post-race recap via email:
Hey Coach! So I first want to say this course was waaayyyyy harder than anticipated and how they made it sound. … Also the weather was just straight up cold. It was about 45 degrees when we started and with a thick fog which we all assumed was going to burn off. Then we quite literally climbed into the clouds to where it could have been no more than 35 to 40 degrees and then it was maybe 50 when I finished but it was really really cold for sure.

My race strategy went off splendidly as you'll see in the splits. But then once it started to go back uphill at 20 was really tough and I fell apart. Had to walk twice from 20 to 21 just to get my composure. Then the death march started to the finish. I was racing from the first mile to mile 21 in 5th place overall and couldn't gain anything on the guy in front of me and I think that made it tough because there were just miles and miles of absolutely no one even in sight and no one on the roads. It felt a little awkward. Anyways I am very proud of finishing and finishing with still a very good time. But of course now all I want to do is get after it again and improve. But for a bit I think I may do some fun 5k's and half marathons.
Splits: 5:43 (not sure this is right as seen by next split as I didn't slow down); 7:11; 6:33; 6:33; 6:43; 6:31; 6:33; 6:43; 7:00 (massive hill); 6:45; 6:08; 6:03; 5:54; 6:07; 6:00; 6:10; 6:06; 6:15; 6:19; 7:08; 9:45 (yeah....); 7:24; 6:59; 7:07; 7:03; 6:59; 1:14 Final Time: 2:55:09
So definitely room for improvement but not too shabby. Ended up 10th overall and 4th in my age group (there were a surprising amount of fast young people here). Qualified for Boston. Not sure I'm going to take advantage of that but we'll see. Still very happy to represent the Marist Alumni Racing Team as best as possible in Maine!

Nicely done ...